Arkansas Prisons

The Arkansas Parole Board has notified the attorneys for four Arkansas death row inmates that approaching deadlines to apply for executive clemency have been suspended.

Board spokesman Solomon Graves confirmed in an email Monday that the deadlines are suspended for the four inmates, who had been scheduled for execution on Dec. 14 and Jan. 14. Graves says the decision was made because of a temporary restraining order placed on those executions by the Arkansas Supreme Court last month.

The Prairie County Circuit Clerk is facing charges for allegedly giving an Arkansas Department of Correction inmate a cell phone.

Vanessa Peters, 53, was arrested last week, charged with furnishing, possessing or using prohibited articles. Prairie County District Judge Jim Rhodes released Peters on her own recognizance on October 21, the same day she was arrested.

An assistant attorney general says the company that sold Arkansas execution drugs had contracts with manufacturers prohibiting the chemicals from being sold for use in death penalty cases, but made a deal anyway because a new state law ensured it would remain anonymous.

Attorneys challenging Arkansas' execution secrecy law are asking a judge to rule on their constitutional concerns before ruling on whether to issue a protective order to shield the drug makers' identity.

The attorneys for nine death row inmates filed the motion Monday in Pulaski County Circuit Court.

Arkansas officials last week asked Judge Wendell Griffen to issue a protective order shielding the state from releasing the drug information or limiting the disclosure to the inmates' attorneys.

The Arkansas Supreme Court says a lower-court judge overstepped his jurisdiction by halting the executions of eight death row inmates, but then granted its own stay so the inmates have enough time to challenge a state law that shields the source of death penalty drugs from the public.

The justices issued the ruling Tuesday, granting the state's request to toss out a stay granted this month by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen. But justices also immediately granted their own stay.